The book series “Jewish Library”, established by the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine, has been enriched with the fourth book – “Tongue of the Prophets: The Life Story of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and the Incredible Revival of Hebrew”. This has been shared on Facebook by the JCU President Boris Lozhkin.
“After the success of the book “Mossad: The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service”, which became the bestseller of the publishing house “Our Format” in 2022, I am sure that this volume will also receive a lot of positive feedback from Ukrainian readers,” Lozhkin noted.
The president of the JCU reminded that Eliezer Ben-Yehuda devoted his life to ensuring that Jews had their own language.
“Hebrew existed, but for many centuries it remained only the language of worship. It was impossible to use it in everyday life. The deficit of necessary words was especially felt against the background of the industrial revolution of the late 19th – early 20th centuries,” Lozhkin said.
Ben-Yehuda, who during his lifetime was considered both an eccentric and a fanatic, “constructed” many words and did everything possible to ensure that Jews started speaking Hebrew. By the time of Israel’s independence, which Ben-Yehuda did not live to see, Israelis already had their own language.
Lozhkin also emphasized the relevance of this book for Ukrainians who are now defending their independence: “Language is the basis of independence. It is obvious for Ukrainians today, and Eliezer Ben-Yehuda was sure of it at the end of the 19th century. He devoted his life to ensuring that Jews spoke their own language”.
The author of the book is Robert St. John, a famous American writer and journalist, a classmate of Ernest Hemingway. This biographical novel has been many times reprinted and translated into many languages before.
The Ukrainian translation of “The Tongue of the Prophets” has appeared in the “Jewish Library” series for the first time.
Boris Lozhkin recalled that the first Ukrainian translations of world bestsellers about Jews and Israel are published in the “Jewish Library”.
“Like all previous books of the "Jewish Library", this volume has been also published by “Our Format" publishing house. Special thanks to the Spektor family for their help in publishing the book,” Lozhkin noted.
The following books have been published in the “Jewish Library” series earlier: “Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn" by Daniel Gordis, Golda Meir’s autobiography “My Life” and the book by Michael Bar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal “Mossad: The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service.”